The Drop - Michael Connelly [42]
“Not before one. Go get yourself something to eat and I’ll meet you then.”
Bosch was reluctant to slow things down but it was important that Rider know the direction the case was heading.
“See you then. By the way, did you put somebody on Irving’s office like I asked you yesterday?”
“Yes, I did. Why?”
“Just wanted to be sure.”
He disconnected before she rebuked him for his lack of confidence in her.
It took Bosch fifteen minutes to get over to Elysian Park and the police academy complex. He stopped in at the café in the Revolver and Athletic Club and took a stool at the counter. He ordered a coffee and a Bratton Burger, named after the prior chief of police, and spent the next hour going over his notes and adding to them.
After paying the tab and checking out some of the police memorabilia hanging on the café wall, he walked through the old gymnasium, the place where he had received his badge on a rainy day more than thirty years before, and into the video room. There was a library here that contained all the training videos used by the department for as long as there had been video. He told the civilian custodian what he was looking for and waited while the man searched for the old tape.
Rider arrived a few minutes later and right on time.
“Okay, Harry, I’m here. As much as I hate daylong budget meetings, I really need to get back as soon as I can. What are we doing here?”
“We’re going to look at a training tape, Kiz.”
“And what does it have to do with Irving’s son?”
“Maybe everything.”
The custodian brought Bosch the tape. He and Rider went over to a viewing cubicle. Bosch put the video in the machine and started the playback.
“This is one of the old training tapes for the controlled bar hold,” he said. “More commonly known in the world as the LAPD choke hold.”
“The infamous choke hold,” she said. “It’s been banned since before I even got here.”
“Technically, the bar hold is banned. The controlled carotid hold is still approved in use of deadly force situations. But good luck with that.”
“So like I said, what are we doing here, Harry?”
Bosch gestured toward the screen.
“They used to use these tapes to teach what to do. Now they’re used to teach what not to do. This is the bar hold.”
At one time the controlled bar hold was standard in the LAPD’s use-of-force progression but it had been outlawed after so many deaths were attributed to it.
The video showed the hold being applied by an instructor on an academy recruit volunteer. From behind the recruit, the instructor brought his left arm across the front of his volunteer’s neck. He then cinched the vise closed by gripping the recruit’s shoulder. The recruit struggled but within seconds passed out. The instructor gently lowered him to the ground and started patting his cheeks. The volunteer woke immediately and seemed puzzled by what had just happened. He was ushered off camera and another volunteer took his place. This time the instructor moved more slowly and explained the steps of the hold. He then offered tips on how to deal with struggling subjects. The second tip was what Bosch was waiting for.
“There,” he said.
He backed the tape up and played the section again. The instructor called the move the hand creep. The left arm was locked across the volunteer’s neck, the hand up at his right shoulder. To guard against the arm being pulled away by the struggling volunteer, the instructor gripped his hands together like hooks at the top of the shoulder and extended his right forearm down the volunteer’s back. Then little by little he tightened the vise on the volunteer’s neck. The second volunteer passed out.
“I can’t believe they actually choked these guys out like that,” Rider said.
“They probably didn’t have a choice when it came to volunteering,” Bosch said. “It’s like the Tasers now.”
Every officer who carried a Taser had to be trained in the use of the device and this included being Tased himself.
“So what are you showing me here, Harry?”
“Back when they outlawed the hold, I was put on the task force investigating all the deaths. It was an